1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for automatically guiding slide fastener stringers such as concealed slide fastener stringers to the sewing station on a sewing machine for enabling the sewing machine to stitch the supplied concealed slide fastener stringers to fabric pieces as of a garment or a bag.
2. Prior Art
For sewing a concealed slide fastener stringer to a fabric piece on a sewing machine, it is necessary to erect an element assembly on the stringer tape into an unfolded position to expose a fold line so that the fastener stringer can be sewn to the fabric piece along the fold line. To meet this requirement, a presser foot of the sewing machine has a groove for guiding the element assembly in its erected position. However, it has been customary practice to manually unfold and fit the element assembly in the groove in the presser foot. Such a manual procedure is time-consuming and unreliable, needs to be effected by a skilled operator, and is of a limited efficiency.
Where a concealed slide fastener composed of two slide fastener stringers is to be fed to a sewing machine for attachment to a pair of fabric pieces, the presser foot has to be manually lifted to allow the slide fastener to pass therethrough since the slide fastener stringers are connected at a trailing end of the slide fastener. Any other guide devices having guide channels and positioned upstream of the presser foot in the direction of feed of the slide fastener have to be lifted to pass the connected end of the slide fastener therethrough.